Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Neville Maxwell, ANU
Malcolm Fraser recently cautioned against viewing the development of China’s military without considering the broader context in which it takes place.
This warning is appropriately applied to past experience as well. Read more…
Author: Neville Maxwell, ANU
‘So solidly built into our consciousness is the concept that China is conducting a rapacious and belligerent foreign policy that whenever a dispute arises in which China is involved she is instantly assumed to have provoked it.’ — Felix Greene 1965.
India is heavily reinforcing its Army and Air Force units on its undefined border with China (two additional infantry divisions, a squadron of attack aircraft, refurbishing airfields etc). This is in breach of the parties’ obligation under a 1993 Sino-Indian treaty to keep force levels in border areas to ‘a minimum level compatible with … friendly and good neighbourly relations’, and Beijing has protested angrily and publicly.